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But later on in the thirteenth century we shall have more particularly to note the Chens or Cheynes in Caithness, and the Scottish or Pictish family of Freskyn of Strabrock and Moray, in its two branches, that of Hugo of Sutherland and that of his grandson Freskin the younger in Sutherland and Caithness.
From notices in a charter of King William the Lion granting and confirming to Freskyn's son, William, his father's lands of Strabrock in West Lothian and of Duffus, Roseisle, Inchkeile, Macher and Kintrai, forming almost the whole parish of Spynie, we believe him to have been dead by 1166, or, at the latest, 1171, the year of Sweyn Asleifarson's death, and we know that he held all these lands from David I, with probably many more in Moray.
We believe him to have been born before 1100, and so to have been a contemporary of Frakark, Thorbiorn Klerk, and Olvir Rosta, of Jarl Ragnvald, of Margret of Athole, Erlend Haraldson and Sweyn, and also of Harold Maddadson; and to have won his Duffus estate, as an addition to his lands at Strabrock, about 1120 or at latest 1130, before or after the crushing defeat, at Stracathro, of the Picts of Angus and Moray; and between these dates to have built the Castle of Duffus on the bank of Loch Spynie, in order to check Norse raids on the Moray coast while the Norse held Turfness or Burghead; and we know that he entertained King David I there during the whole summer of 1150, while that king was superintending the building of the Abbey of Kinloss.
Freskin was, as also stated, the eldest son of Walter de Moravia of Duffus, second son of Hugo Freskyn of Strabrock, Duffus and Sutherland by Walter's marriage with Euphamia, probably, from her name, a daughter of Ferchar Mac-in-tagart, who became Earl of Ross.
Of Freskyn or Fretheskin I, the founder of the line, we have no mention in any charter direct to him, either of his Linlithgowshire lands at Strabrock, or of his estate near Spynie in Moray with its Castle at Duffus. To us he is as Melchizedek; for neither his father nor his mother is known.
Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland had three sons, William, great-grandson of the original Freskyn, dominus or Lord of Sutherland, and afterwards first earl, Walter, who succeeded to Strabrock in Linlithgowshire and to Duffus and the family estates in Moray, which were thus severed in ownership from Sutherland, and Andrew.
Thirdly, we have the family of Freskyn de Moravia then established at Strabrock in Linlithgowshire, who about 1120 or 1130 received, for his loyalty and services, extensive lands at Duffus and elsewhere in Morayshire, and probably about 1196 the lands in south Caithness known as Sudrland or Sutherland, from the Scottish crown.
Freskyn, probably about 1130 or earlier, had built this castle on the northern estate, comprising the parish of Spynie near Elgin and other extensive lands in Moray, which had been given to him in addition to his southern territories of Strabrock, now Uphall and Broxburn in Linlithgowshire, which he already held from the Scottish king.
To enable them to inundate the immense plain which stretched between Lillo and Strabrock up to the walls of Antwerp, it was necessary to cut through the dike which defended it against the irruptions of the eastern Scheldt.
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